Cash for Clunkers - For or Against?

What do you guys think of the Cash for Clunkers (C.A.R.S.) Program? A lot of enthusiasts are against it because it will make used replacement parts harder to find, and possibly crush otherwise collectible vehicles. Thanks to SEMA's lobbying, pre-1984 cars are exempted, but there is far from unanimous praise for this program. What do you think?

Its a debate thats spread far and wide. I personally think its a good program as a whole. Yes there is gonna be a few trucks/cars that deserve a better ending, but in general, most of the vehicles that qualify for the program wont be a Good Fix r upper.... Look at it this way, would you give up to 4500 for an Explorer with 300K miles on it? Neither would i..

I think that the program will be valuable to those who own older cars with high miles that would not be worth 500 dollars, much less 4500 however; provided that most people who own old cars cant afford to buy new ones 4500 many seem like an enticing offer. But you now have a new car, a new payment, and more than likely, a higher insurance bill. (As I would hope you would have full coverage on a new vehicle and if you were smart your $500 93 ranger is on liability.) that being said your payments will be drastically higher than simply providing gas and preventative maintenance for your current vehicle. I have no problem with people taking advantage of the program, the only problem i have is that by instating this program, the government has now determined what is to be considered a clunker and by setting a date of 1985 and up to 1999 making the minimum age a vehicle can be considered a "clunker" 10yrs. old. I have a problem with this, this leads people to subconciously consider their cars old and needing to be replaced within 10-15 years when this is not the case. I own 2 chevrolet silverados with a combined mile total of 755,000 miles both of which obtain 18mpg city/ and 21hwy dont have oil leaks and have better exhaust emmisions than provided by the factory. For these vehicles to be considered "clunkers" is an insult to the hard work that has gone into not only maintaining these vehicle but the exterior and interior modifications that have been done, de-valuing the trucks. not to mention that the destruction of these vehicles(yes thats what they do, they destroy all the moving parts and melt them down to make new pieces) will contribute to an increased difficulty to obtain parts for older vehicles, whatever happened to buying something and taking care of it and making it worth while? I just dont think it is fair to those who have maintained their vehicles properly instead of letting them fall apart and trade it in for more than its worth. but then again, when has been doing what is expected of you ever really rewarded.

Well, one of the biggest issues I've seen so far for it is the dealers getting paid on time. I've heard some dealers have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of reimbursements they're waiting to get paid for. Consequently, they're not destroying the cars until they get payment (don't blame them) and they're having to lease additional storage space to store clunker trade-ins until they get payment. Hopefully the government gets its @$$ in gear with this program and starts paying dealers.

Pros:-The program has worked. The goal was to boost new car sales, and it has.

-The program is limited to vehicles 1984 and newer, so no true, current classics are being destroyed.

Cons:-While it undeniable that new car sales have increased, it may be an illusion. It is widely speculated that the people buying new cars would have anyway, and are merely moving up their purchases by a few months to take advantage of the program.

-Obviously, this program will slighlty decrease the amount of parts and vehicles available in the used market. I drove by a dealership in the Fairfield, CA area the other day that was proudly displaying their "clunkers" and saw six 88-98 C/K's. In fact, the C/K may end up being the hardest hit model (of course, there are still millions of them out there).

-Used car dealers are getting the short end of the stick, as their sales have gone down the toilet since this program started. (Idea: can you buy a used car for $1000, then use it to get the rebate, assuming you don't have something to trade in? Or do you have to have owned the "clunker" for a while first?)

-I agree with "bigblockchevy"'s lament that people don't take care of and fix things anymore. If something stops working, we just toss it. C'mon people, Fix Your sh**!

All in all though, given that so much of the cause of a recession is public perception, anything that looks like it's working to stimulate the economy will make people feel better about their sitiuations, the economy, and their ability to make big purchases. It is this perception that we are moving out of the recession that is most important, in my opinion, and that is why I am for the C.A.R.S. program.

We have a similar thing here in England where if you have a car over 10 years old having a valid MOT or within 14 days of MOT expiry and owned by you over a year, they give you £2000 off the price of the new car. Which is all very well, except that the manufactures have put the price of new cars up by over £1000 (which is the part of the £2k off that they have to pay, government pays the other £1k) on a lot of the cars.

But it works, and has had a lot of people take interest in it and is going a lot faster than most people expected it to.

It is a shame though because in my local scrapyard I came across 2 Honda Preludes (last 2 cars were Preludes, and I'm in several Prelude owners clubs) and one was a beautiful white 4th generation one (1992) with only 48k miles on the clock and full leather interior (which I took out and sold ) and a mint condition 3rd generation one (1989) with only 120k miles on the clock. Just such a shame seeing them in there like that

I am with it to a certain extent, but I love chevy trucks so i guesss that is y i *** so much wen i see them crushing nice trucks or blowing perfectly good engines. But on the other hand they need to get those crappy smoking junk cars off the road!